Nathan Lyon has fired the primary sledge of the Boxing Day Test, with South African skipper Dean Elgar on the receiving finish.
Lyon was fielding at level when hometown hero Scott Boland fired down the primary ball of the thirteenth over on the MCG on Monday.
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Elgar performed a size supply late and chopped on however, regardless of the ball rolling again onto the stumps, it did not dislodge the bails and the opener survived.
“Onto the stumps, Elgar gets lucky,” Isa Guha stated on Fox Cricket.
Lyon then got here in to remind Elgar – who was on 14 runs on the time – simply how shut he was to being dismissed.
“I reckon that’s your Santa present….That’s Santa coming late I reckon,” Lyon stated.
Elgar fired again “I’ve been a good boy” earlier than Lyon doubled down.
“Never. You’re never on the good list.”
Mark Waugh chuckled on the sledge then used a golf analogy to elucidate why Elgar was nonetheless on the crease.
“It’s just rolled back and did it clip the stump? It just lipped out, soft putt lipped out of the hole with the pace it rolled back,” Waugh stated.
Elgar hit the very subsequent supply effectively by the offside however Marnus Labaschagne was equal to the problem and prevented runs with some sharp fielding.
“Playing away from his body and the fielder backing up the bowler as well, they’re on here Australia,” Gua stated.
But Elgar earned one other reprieve within the 18th over when Lyon put down a troublesome probability at level off the bowling of Cameron Green
“It was a tough one, looked like he just picked it up a fraction late,” Waugh stated.
“They either stick or they don’t, those ones.”
Isa added: “Elgar is riding his luck, chop ion which hit the stumps and a dropped chance.”
Elgar’s luck ultimately ran out when he was run out within the twenty third over by an excellent piece of fielding from Labaschagne who produced a direct hit from cowl.
“On to it in a flash and a brilliant throw,” Ian Smith stated.
Elgar made 26 and handed 5000 Test runs in his innings, however the dismissal was the primary time within the 35-year-old’s Test profession that he’d been run out.
Originally revealed as ‘Never on the good list’: Lyon’s hilarious Santa sledge after freak second
